One Piece: Failure’s Road to the Pirate King

Even by the time the hot pot was nearly finished, that lump of 'egg roll' remained untouched.

"What a waste."

Lily picked up a piece of charred food and bit into it, with Sage unable to stop her in time, watching helplessly as she chewed a few times and swallowed.

"Are you okay? Do you need to go to the hospital? Someone, anyone who knows how to treat illnesses, get a ship's doctor!" Sage shouted.

Of course, there were no hospitals at sea; perhaps there were some mobile hospitals, but Sage had never encountered one.

The crew he had gathered were mostly fighters; where would a ship's doctor come from?

This was a navigator; if something went wrong, who would be responsible for navigating? "What do we need a doctor for?" Lily asked curiously, stuffing the remaining charred food into her mouth, revealing a look of happiness.

It seemed... it tasted good?

Sage instinctively glanced at Renetia.

"Is it really delicious?"

Renetia blinked, picked up the egg roll in front of her, sniffed it with her little nose, and after confirming there was no strange smell, took a gentle bite. Her bright eyes trembled.

Those eyes, from shock to panic, then to nostalgia, flashed through a multitude of emotions before finally transforming into a serene understanding, and then from that serenity into an ethereal emptiness, losing their luster in the end.

Like a doll, Renetia handed the egg roll to Sage, her tone flat as if reciting lines, "Sage, this is really delicious, you should try it too."

Sage stepped back, shaking his head, "Such lowly tricks, I've used them all up."

Lily looked at Renetia and asked, "Reiti, aren't you allergic to eggs?"

"Yeah, I'm allergic to eggs."

Renetia's grip loosened, and she fell backward, fainting.

Sage broke out in a cold sweat.

He didn't know if she was allergic to eggs, but he understood that this thing was indeed inedible.

"Reiti! Reiti!"

Lily hurried over, shaking Renetia, then turned to Sage, "Sage."

"It's fine, it's indeed an 'allergy', she'll just faint for a bit, it's not a big deal."

Sage waved his hand, then turned to Lily with a serious expression, "Lily, you're going too far!"

"Huh?" Lily looked confused.

"How can a navigator cook? Don't do this kind of thing in the future!"

Sage shouted, "You're an officer; aside from your own duties, the rest can be enjoyed like I do. Don't do such meaningless things; it squeezes the living space of the crew. If you do everything, isn't that just being overly competitive? No matter if you're a pirate or not, one shouldn't be too competitive in life!"

He couldn't just say that what she made was indeed terrible; such a small girl had already suffered under her own hands.

They were all crew members, and she was the first to follow him in starting this venture; it was just cooking, so he was still reasonable about it and would just say it more tactfully.

"Captain Sage!"

Akin rushed in, saying, "We see the island!"

Although they were having a feast, someone still had to keep watch; the control room on the third floor still needed pirates to keep an eye out. Sage employed a rotation system, randomly selecting two to go on duty, then finding another two to rotate in.

Akin had gone up an hour ago; despite being the head of the combat team, he seemed to not place himself in an officer's position, diligently doing every task that belonged to a pirate.

In his eyes, the officers were special.

Lady Lily was a navigator and was among the first to follow Captain Sage, so of course, she was an officer.

Lady Renetia, although young and newly joined the Pirate Crew, was a Devil Fruit user and the one who built this massive ship, so she was also an officer.

As for himself, aside from fighting, he couldn't do anything else.

Even in combat, he was still learning the techniques taught by Captain Sage, and he was far from enough.

"The island is coming up."

Sage walked over to Renetia, grabbed her by the nape of her neck, and shook her a bit, waking her up as she gasped for air.

"Wow! Just now I saw my master; he was kindly waving at me, wanting to take me to find better materials for making treasure ships. The ocean there is different, radiating a strange blue aura," Renetia said, her expression dazed.

"That's the ocean of hell; don't look at it next time! Lily."

Sage gave her a light smack on the back of the head and then looked at Lily.

Lily nodded, found a window, and used a telescope to focus on the discovered island, confirming, "Sage, we've arrived; it's Shallow Sand Kingdom."

...

Shallow Sand Kingdom is not an island nation; it is located on a piece of land in the northern part of the East Sea. There are quite a few countries on this land, and Shallow Sand Kingdom is just a small coastal country among them.

The terrain of the country is mostly shallow beaches covered in sand, and there aren't many ports around. However, on the beach, one can see huge sand houses made of sand, and there are many fishermen using nets to catch fish.

One of the fishermen, looking at the massive dark clouds approaching, suddenly gasped and shouted, "A storm is coming! Everyone be careful, run inside, don't get swept away!"

"No, wait, look, there's a ship over there!"

Another fisherman's pupils constricted, pointing at the storm beneath the dark clouds, trembling, "There are... no people on the ship!"

In the gloomy sky of the storm, with a flash of lightning and thunder, a massive black ship was illuminated, approaching this way. This enormous ship showed no signs of damage under the violent storm, looking as new as if it had just been built, yet not a single person could be seen! The lookout on the mast, the vast deck, not a soul in sight, combined with the absence of any signs of damage, and the immense storm following closely behind the ship... "A g-g-ghost ship!" the fisherman screamed in terror, "It's a ghost ship! A ghost ship from hell! They're coming to take us away, run!!"

Legends of ghost ships abound across the seas, and even each sea area has its own unique tales.

There are legends of the 'Flying Dutchman', which can never return home.

There are also ghost ships that emerge from the depths of the sea, accompanied by sea monsters.

And there are islands filled with zombies and ghosts. Now, with the emergence of a ghost ship from the storm, it didn't seem like much of a problem.

As the massive ship approached, the coastal fishermen grabbed their nets and ran towards the beach, but how could their speed compare to the approaching dark clouds? Soon, the entire sandy area was shrouded in shadow, with fierce winds and torrential rain plunging the surroundings into darkness.

That enormous ship also docked at the shallow beach.

Boom!

Thunder roared, bringing forth a flash of light. A fisherman who was running slowly instinctively turned back and saw that beneath the clearly empty ship, at the shallow beach, inexplicably, several golden glimmers appeared. Under that glow, a row of figures suddenly emerged, slowly approaching this way.

"Ghosts!!"

The fisherman screamed in terror, his eyes rolling back as he fainted.

Sage moved forward, and as he did, the jewelry and gold ornaments on his hands glimmered under the lightning. He heard the commotion and looked around, "Where? Where are the ghosts?"

Are there really ghosts at sea?

It seemed there was no such thing, or was there a Devil Fruit user here? "It's so dark; if we suddenly appear, we might be mistaken for something else."

Under the wind and rain, Lily's hair got wet, turning into long golden strands, the rainwater clinging to her clothes, outlining her beautiful figure.

Sage furrowed his brows, stroking his chin in thought, then shook his head, "What a joke, I'm a pirate, not a ghost."

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